Are you tired of generations being used to identify and target members? Are you looking for ways to better address your member needs to increase retention and engagement? This session looks at how one organization has changed their philosophy on membership to increase engagement based off of looking at their Life Milestones instead of Generations. Explore how this was accomplished and how you can make similar adjustments in your own organization.

1. Life Milestones are the New
Generations
Monday, March 14, 2016
10:30 – 11:30 am
Trevor Mitchell, CAE
@trevm22

2. Introduction
• 10 Years in Association Management
• Strong involvement within industry
• Gen X or Y (depends on ranges)
• Participated in various events on
generations

3. When I Hear Someone Talk about Generations

4. Utilization of Generations has Value
• Benefits
– Easy to compare with:
• Competitors
• Populations
• Research
– Generally understood
• Challenges
– Wide ranges within a
Generation
– Creates broad based
stereotype
– Different definitions
– Many don’t relate
Does this really help your efforts in
connecting with your members?

5. Life Milestones
Generations
are

6. Life Milestone Considerations

7. Life Milestone Considerations
• What are the ways your members engage with the organization?
– Why do they join at various points?
– Why do they continue to renew?
– What is their evolutionary journey with you?
• Identify groups of people around a common effort
• Match benefits and value to those individuals

8. American Mensa Case Study

9. About American
Mensa
• Membership is
55,000+
– Age range from 4-
96 (+/-)
– Across the US

10. Current Demographic Breakdown
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Homeland (2001-
2020)
Millennial (1982-
2000)
Generation X (1961-
1981)
Baby Boomer (1943-
1960)
Silent Generation
(1925-1942)
Depression/GI NA
Member Demo New Member Demo Officer Demo

11. How we are defining Life Milestones
• What’s happening with our members?
• Collecting
– Description of Milestone Grouping
– What they want from Mensa
• When they join
• When they renew
• Continuous membership
• How
– Annual Member Satisfaction and Needs Surveys
– New Member Surveys
– Lapsed Member Surveys
– Demographic Data

12. Life Milestone Breakdown
Member
Segment/Persona
Number of
Members
% of
Membership
Net Promotor
Score
Retention
Rate
Youth (6-12) 2,138 4.3% N/A 62.4%
Teen (13-17) 1,866 3.8% N/A 62.0%
College (18-22) 1,134 2.3% 50 51.9%
Single 8,758 17.6% 0
Single with kids @ home 268 2.5% 17
Married no Kids 1,223 2.5% 10
Married with Kids @ home 1,139 2.3% 8
Total (22-45) 11,388 22.9% 5 57.1%
Mid-Life (46-65) 18,349 36.9% 22 66.6%
Retired (66+) 13,240 26.6% 25 74.2%
No Age Reported 1,642 3.3% 11 68.5%
Total Membership 49,757 100% 16 88.8%
As of 7/15/2015

13. Benefit Mapping

14. Realizations
• Why haven’t we done this before?
• Harder to track than generations but worth
it!
• Identified member value/benefit gaps
• Focused more on aligning work to member
needs
• Doesn’t capture everyone, that’s okay.

15. Example
• College (18-22) Target
• Lowest number of members
• What we provide socially they get
in College
• What makes us relevant?
– Connect them with industry
peers
– Bridge the gap of transition

16. How You Can Apply This Process
• Think about your members
• What are the stages they go through in your organization
– Professional growth
– Continued education
– Community of peers
• When they join/why do they join?
• What value do you have at each one?
• How can you help them move to the next milestone?
• When do they leave & why?

17. Final Thoughts
• This isn’t a new concept, it’s still target marketing
• Align more with their needs
• It takes time but worth it
• Approach may not work for everyone and that’s OK
Don’t be afraid to make a change. You may loose a
few things but you may gain something even better.

18. Contact Me
Trevor S. Mitchell, CAE
Director of Membership & Strategy
American Mensa
trevorm@americanmensa.org
817.607.0060 ext 5521
trevormitchellcae@gmail.com
@trevm22
www.trevormitchellcae.com